OK, to start off, I bought Chulo at a local Petco, so all the breeders on this site, especially all the Maryland breeders I couldn't find can go ahead and . I love this little guy, but I do have some concerns that maybe you folks could help me with. The paperwork I have says that Chulo was born on 18 June 2009 That should make him about 3 1/2 months old. When I took him to have his wings and nails trimmed, the lady at the store (who turns out to be a local breeder) asked me how old he is, and when I took her, she had a skeptical look on her face. When I inquired if she thought he was older than that, she said no, but that he appeared younger and asked if he was eating ok. I replied that he seemed to be eating fine, but that he was eating extruded food and I wanted to get him converted to pellets. She told and showed me her concerns. He still demonstrates the quaking (begging) for food and treats, which she said is a baby characteristic and that he has a babies voice. Do they ever stop quaking, or is it something that they continue through life? More importantly, she showed me on one of her Quakers (that she had there) how full its chest area is in comparison to Chulo. Chulo has a body more like a cockatiel, rather than a Quaker. I thought it was just because he was young. Now I am worried. Should I continue trying to wean him over to pellets, or try to fatten him up a bit first? He weighed in at 94 grams the night I brought him home (Petco weighed him). Is it possible that he was pulled from Mommy to soon, or shipped half way across the country to soon? If so, what could be the ramifications of that? I'm just not sure of anything right now except I love the little guy. In about a week or so, his DNA sexing should be back, and that will be one more thing I am sure of, but beyond that, this has all thrown me for a loop.

If it helps at all, my wife just put up some new pics of Chulo in the gallery that were taken yesterday.

The fids at Petco all need good homes too. To me, it sounds as though Chulo may have been taken off of the hand-feeding formula just a little too soon. Here's a good seed conversion that has worked well for me. Andie Wan Kenobi posted it a long time ago, and it was pinned in the forum because it's worked so well for so many people. It's not uncommon for birds to lose a small amount of weight during the conversion, but you want to monitor the overall trend of their weight to be sure that they aren't losing too much too quickly.

If Chulo is roughly the size of a cockatiel, then roughly 94 grams is about right. When Chulo is full-grown, depending on his size, he should weigh anywhere from 100 grams to as much as 130 grams. Your vet can give you a more ideal weight to aim for during a wellness check.

If you want to fatten him up, try adding a serving of baby mash to his diet in the morning and another one in the evening before bed, especially if you think he might be younger than you thought. If he was getting what he needed on the diet he's on then he wouldn't be on the light side. I'm not sure what his "optimum" weight would be... the more experienced quaker people here should be able to throw a couple of numbers at you.

Just as a side comment... my first job ever at the ripe old age of 14 was in a pet store. I worked there for two years and I can say from experience that 90% of the time the information the people at the pet store give you is the information THEY got. I don't mean to bash breeders... but the GOOD ones don't usually deal with pet stores because they like to make sure their babies go to homes where they'll be a good match. In the pet store you have to sell to whomever puts down the cash, so to speak. Even if you know they're not going to fit with the breed/species/type of pet they "desperately" want. You can try to lead them to something else, you can try to give them as much information as possible, but at the end of the day if they walk up to cash with money in hand they walk out with whatever they want. (I'm talking about the big chain stores here... I know of a handful of small, privately owned pet stores that work very closely with breeders and will features specific animals or will have a "Breeder Board" where people can get the information they need to purchase the actual animal they want while shopping for everything else.) I've seen puppes that were "10 weeks old" and didnt have ANY of their milk teeth. I've seen "8 week old" kittens that barely had their eyes open. I've personally taken in and rehab'd a citron crested cockatoo "fully weaned" that was deemed unsellable because no one could handle him, he screamed continually, and he wouldn't eat. Turns out they force weaned him and he was line fed.... they put all the birds in a row in a bin, measure out the amount of food they "need" into syringes, ram the end of the syringe into the crop and fill it. I've had to force feed birds while they were sick to keep them from losing too much weight and it's a stressful and uncomfortable procedure. (Zohar went to an amazing home where he's spoiled rotten... but it took me TWO YEARS to get him to the point where he was able to function in a mixed species flock.) A pet store's job is to make money. LOL Most high reputation breeders I know barely break even once all the bills have been paid, the vet bills have been settled, and the new toy parts are on order.

Wow... that turned into a long rant!!!!

Give your baby a wide variety of foods from the safe foods list on this forum. You'll soon find things that he loves, and he should put on weight soon, especially as he gets used to his new home. My baby was only 84 grams at 8 weeks, but the vet said she was filled out nicely. Now, at almost a year, she weighs 94 grams, but it's 94 grams of pure mischief. We call her the blue bird of scrappiness.

I feel a bit better now. I have already started using the feed conversion pinned to this forum section, but as I said, I am taking him from Extruded to pellets rathan coming from seed. He LOVES seed, and he also loves the green and the yellow pieces from his extruded food. I have separated the greens and the yellows to use as treats. His next choice seems to be the reds. That is what is was eating this morning. He had his extruded for 20 mins and then I left him with his pellets for the day. This evening, he will get another 20 mins with the extruded. Fingers crossed that all goes well. Think I'll look for a scale tonight.

i agree with Dave... even Petco birds needs homes!! i felt so bad for one by me that i talked the manager into giving him to me free just so i could find him a new home. it was an older quaker... had been there for months... so i asked the manager how he could consciencely sell that bird knowing it bites. so they just gave him to me! i had just brought Cricket home so i knew i couldn't keep him but i found him a good home!

i brought cricket home when he was 12 weeks old and while he was completely weaned, i would warm some oatmeal and mix in a little fruit or veggie baby food and feed it to him off a spoon. to me, that's how we bonded so quickly.

now that he's all grown up, he'd rather sleep in than have breakfast with me but sometimes at night i'll warm up some oatmeal and feed it to him!

and i agree 94 grams is a decent size... nothing to be alarmed about. cricket, being almost 3 years old, only weighs 96 grams. my older male quaker is HUGE compared to Cricket... so it depends on their body type. just weigh him the same time every day to keep an eye on the weight.

and most of all... ENJOY your new quaker!!

Nobody mentioned quaking ...

Jade turned 5 in June and she still does it spontaneously, and REALLY does it big time when you have something she really, really wants. Oatmeal cookies, for example. Clyde does it sometimes for no apparent reason, though I don't know how old he is. We've had him since May 2008, though, so at a minimum, he's 2, and I really think he's older than that. So yeah, they can keep quaking even as adults. If your bird has a band, you can probably track down the breeder and find out exactly how old he is so you'll know if the pet store told you accurately or not.

He does have a band, and I have a certificate that indicates that he was checked for certain avian ailments but I could say offhand, which ones. Speaking of bands, I read in the Guide to the Quaker Parrot that you may weant to consider having the band removed for safety reasons. Any thoughts on that? BTW, I got a little electronic gram scale tonight. Nothing to fancy, but enough for me to weigh out food, and probably get an idea of his weight.

racal is 6 to 7 months old and he quakes although i think he was younger than the sales man told me

Each bird is as individual as each human baby is. He may have been weaned a bit young but some birds wean themselves as young as 6 weeks but in general usually 8 to 12 weeks. The size of a quaker can depend on several things. Since there are 4 different sub species of quaker and they are pretty much determined by their size and weight. Some are smaller and some are quite a lot bigger.

Average weights run from 90 grams to 150 grams so if your baby is 94 grams then he's on the smaller side and probably has hereditary genes of the smaller quaker species.
I'd have a well bird check up with your own vet and have them check his weight and check to see how previlent his keel bone is. If his keel bone is very protrusive he may be a little underweight in which case if you just feed him a little more higher caloric food.

I too have purchased a bird from a pet store, I felt sorry for him, had the cash so he came home with me. He turned out to be a great bird and a very good breeder so don't let this particular breeder beat you up or make you feel guilty. As the others have said, pet store birds need love and good homes too.

I want to clarify something...you are saying extruded food...I'm assuming you are referring to a specifically shaped food like ones that look like grapes, or banana's or berries etc. This is still considered a pellet because it contains all the vitamins and nutrients that the bird needs. The difference between the pressed an the extruded is that the pressed aren't heated to the same temps as the extruded and they are more coarsely ground ingredients. Its still a controversial subject as to whether the pressed or the extruded are better.

I would suggest to try both, which ever your bird eats the best and does the best on is what you should feed.

Personally, I like to feed a natural pellet whether it pressed or extruded meaning it has no artificial colors added. I do it for several reasons, One is because I don't like having multicolored droppings, its easier to monitor if something is amiss with their health. Also some birds are very sensative to the dyes they use in the food and so I just feel that if you can eliminate some of the things that are known to cause problems with some birds you have a head start eliminating things if something should cause a health concern.